Radiative forcing - energy balances and the greenhouse effect

Radiative forcing - energy balances and the greenhouse effect

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Climate change 1995, The science of climate change, contribution of working group 1 to the second assessment report of the intergovernmental panel on climate change, UNEP and WMO, Cambridge university press, 1996

Description:
Radiative forcing is the change in the balance between radiation coming into the atmosphere and radiation going out. A positive radiative forcing tends on average to warm the surface of the Earth, and negative forcing tends on average to cool the surface. The figure shows estimates of the globally and annually averaged anthropogenic radiative forcing (in Wm-2) due to changes in concentrations of greenhouse gases and aerosols from pre-industrial times to present day and to natural changes in solar output from 1850 to present. The height of the rectangular bar indicates a mid-range estimate of the forcing and the error bars show the uncertainty range. Confidence level shows the author's confidence that the actual forcing lies within the given error range. Note: forcing associated with stratospheric aerosols resulting from volcanic eruptions is not shown because it is very variable over this time period.

Main greenhouse gasesThe table lists some of the main greenhouse gases (such as carbon dioxide, methane, and freons) and their concentrations in pre-industrial times and in 1994; atmospheric lifetimes; anthropogenic sources; and Global Warmi...

By Philippe Rekacewicz, UNEP/GRID-Arendal

Temperature and CO2 concentration in the atmosphere over the past 400 000 yearsOver the last 400,000 years the Earth's climate has been unstable, with very significant temperature changes, going from a warm climate to an ice age in as rapidly as a few decades. These rapid changes suggest that clima...

By Philippe Rekacewicz, UNEP/GRID-Arendal

Sources of greenhouse gasesShows the sources for greenhouse gases, contributing to climate change, and their relative radiative forcing effect (radiative forcing is the change in the balance between radiation coming into the atmosphere and radiati...

By Philippe Rekacewicz, UNEP/GRID-Arendal

Thinning of the Arctic sea-iceSea-ice draft is the thickness of the part of the ice that is submerged under the sea. Comparison of sea-ice draft data acquired on submarine cruises between 1993 and 1997 with similar data acquired between 1958 and 1976...

By Philippe Rekacewicz, UNEP/GRID-Arendal

IPCC structureIn 1988, UNEP and WMO jointly established the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) as concern over changes in the climate became a political issue. The purpose of the IPCC was to assess the state of knowledge...

By Philippe Rekacewicz, UNEP/GRID-Arendal

Scenarios of sea level rise, now - 2100Using the IS92 emission scenarios, projected global mean sea level increases relative to 1990 were calculated up to 2100. Taking into account the ranges in the estimate of climate sensitivity and ice melt parameters, and...

By Philippe Rekacewicz, UNEP/GRID-Arendal

Global atmospheric concentration of CO2Atmospheric CO2 has increased from a pre-industrial concentration of about 280 ppmv to about 367 ppmv at present (ppmv= parts per million by volume). CO2 concentration data from before 1958 are from ice core measurements...

By UNEP/GRID-Arendal

Potential climate change impactsIf greenhouse gas concentrations keep rising, climatic changes are likely to result. Those changes will potentially have wide-ranging effects on the environment and socio-economic and related sectors, such as health, agr...